


the drumming inside her

by hariboo



Category: Thor (2011)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-12-11
Updated: 2011-12-11
Packaged: 2017-10-30 14:37:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,283
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/332833
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hariboo/pseuds/hariboo
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>she can feel everyone looking at her, waiting for her to break or give up. they don't understand. she made a promise too.</p>
            </blockquote>





	the drumming inside her

**Author's Note:**

> holiday gift fic for my dear emma, aka [](http://tosca1390.livejournal.com/profile)[**tosca1390**](http://tosca1390.livejournal.com/). somehow hiemdall decided to be a part of this fic and i just couldn't tell him no.

 

 

(He keeps watch as he's always done, but lately his eyes drifts to Midgard more than it has in a thousand years.)

 

 

 

 

 

She tries not to notice the looks. The increasingly worried looks that Erik and Darcy throw at her as the days drag on and the sky stays the same. She tries, but it's hard when Darcy's lips press together when she realises Jane spent the whole night going over calculations and when Erik's frowns at her through the computer. SHIELD's tucked him away somewhere working on something or other that they don't want him to tell Jane about, but she notices things too. How Erik's eyes seem darker and the way he's always rubbing his shoulders as if trying relive a phantom tension. He's more curious about her work though than he used to be, but she figures having an alien immortal crash land into your life changes your perspective on things.

It sure changed hers and sometimes she thinks she's foolish for missing a man-god she only knew for the better part of a week so much, but then she remembers Thor's smile and how he would press his smile to her knuckles.

Darcy quotes _Speed_ at her when they talk about those days, but Jane only laughs and shrugs. Darcy may be right. It may have been too fast, but it doesn't feel like that inside her.

She thinks of his last words to her and his promise and as each day passes the feeling that something is wrong where he is grows stronger. She doesn't know where this feeling comes from, instinct maybe, but it's there.

Jane hasn't told Darcy this because Darcy already has too many theories about everything from broken rainbows to magic spells. Darcy's reading too much mythology as it is. The girl is even taking an extra course on the subject as to be ready for they do open the Bridge again. Jane wonders if it's her friend's way of understanding all they went through. It's why work helps her, even if does mean spending sleepless nights on the roof of the lab, because she knows the answers are in the math, in the sky, in the science. She looks at Thor's drawings of his World Tree and sees pathways not magically built but pre-existing. Like tunnels through the cosmos and one of them will lead her to Thor. She just needs to find a way to open the path. She reads Darcy's notes about Norse mythology that she leaves around. Sticky notes on her laptop, little asides in some of Jane's own work and they help. Darcy draws on the practical and the magical and makes Jane smile, makes Jane think.

Looking up to the moon, she wonders of Asgard has one. Leaning back on her chair, Jane smiles as Darcy snorts in her sleep in her sleeping bag and stares out at the desert.

Biting her lip, Jane stands and walks towards the markings that still lay in the sand: a landing site. Coordinates for the Bridge — visual guide posts for Heimdall to know where to look and guide the Bifrost according to Thor — to know where to reopen.

She looks over her shoulder and makes sure Darcy is still asleep, her giant earphones covering her ears.

Jane looks up to the sky and shouts. She can't believe she's about to do this.

"Heimdall! Heimdall! Please, if you can, open the bridge! Please! "

The desert wind blows across her face and nothing happens.

Jane laughs at herself and presses her palms to her cheeks — she gets sentimental and loopy at midnight, clearly. Looking up Jane sighs. "Maybe you don't tell Thor about that, okay? Between you and me, Hiemdall, but you can tell him I said hi."

She looks to the markings in the sand, the toe of her boots brush against the edges of the discoloured sand, and wonders if the gatekeeper is even looking at her. Figures it doesn't matter. "Tell him I miss him." She whispers. "Tell him I'll get him back."

 

 

 

 

 

 

(Moving up from where Jane stands, through the clouds, past the moon, and through the stars, the gatekeeper watches the mortal woman. Her conviction is as strong as ever as is her heart.

From the cracked edges of his post, he touches his chin to his chest, nodding.

"The secret is ours, Jane Foster, and your message shall be relaid.")

 

 

 

 

 

 

When the Bifrost splits the sky open months after that night and Jane's arms wind around Thor's neck, as they laugh into each other's mouth, Thor whispers against her lips.

"You are wondrous, Jane."

She closes her eyes and presses her forehead against the slope of is nose, smiling.

"Oh, and yes, Hiemdall sends his regards."

Her laugh bubbles out and she throws her head back to the now settling sky.

"Does he now?"

Thor's arms hold tight and his lips trace the line of her cheek as hugs her, his grin stretched wide across his face. "Yes, I believe he's grown fond you."

Jane leans against his side as he sets her down to turn to Darcy who's already snapping pictures. "Yeah, we really built a good rapport over the last few months."

Thor laughs and something that's been felt tight and pulled and near breaking in Jane loosens and settles.

 

 

 

 

 

(Hiemdall's lip curve from his rebuilt perch.)

 

 

 

 

Jane wakes up early the next day and smiles at Thor's sprawled out body on her too small bed. She smiles and shifts, giggling quietly when his arm comes around her in his sleep. He mumbles against her ribs as she reaches to shut down the alarm that's beeping somewhere on the floor. As she find its and shuts it off with a hard slap of her palm, her eyes land on her notebook that's keeping it company on the floor. For a long time Thor's doodles where the only thing she had to remember him by. Reaching to pick it up, she's grateful for Thor's arm which is effectively keeping her from falling off the bed. As she settles back against the pillows, notebook in lap, Thor's eyes blink awake.

"Jane?"

"Just," she smoothes her hands over notebook, closing it carefully, "this book is very important to me. I didn't want to leave it on the floor." She sets it back on one of the shelves that hang near the bed.

"Hmm," Thor mumbles, still more asleep than awake and Jane bites her lip to stop her smile. Wiggling down back to his side, she traces a finger down his nose.

"It's nice having you back."

"I am happy to have returned as well."

She grins, tries to find herself some more space on the bed. Cringes as she elbows Thor even when he doesn't seem to notice. "I think I might need to get a bigger bed though. Maybe even a bigger trailer."

"But I am find with these arrangement, Jane." Thor's chuckles warm her and then she is laughing too. Gasping and laughing as she finds herself now sprawled over his body. His hand rest on the small of her back and one of his calves hooks around her leg. Folding her hands over his chest she rests her chin on them, watching as he closes his eyes. She closes her when his fingers begin smoothing their way up and down her back.

Soothing and comfortable.

She sighs, pressing her lips to the skin under her mouth on the exhale. "I guess we're okay as we are." Thor hums, nosing at her hair.

In the quiet of the trailer they both fall back asleep and for the first in months Jane lets herself sleep in.


End file.
